St. Johns County adds, makes changes to impact fees

At its Dec. 2 regular meeting, the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved an amendment to the county’s Consolidated Impact Fee Ordinance. The amendment adopts the St. Johns County Impact Fee Update Study and establishes a new conservation and open space impact fee to help fund the protection of natural areas and open space as the county continues to grow. The full amendment is available to the public.

New Fee Supports Land Conservation

The conservation and open space impact fee is designed to ensure new development contributes to the cost of preserving sensitive lands, wildlife habitat and natural open areas.

Under the amended ordinance:

• The fee will begin at 50% of the maximum recommended amount identified in the Impact Fee Update Study.

• It will increase by 12.5% each year for four years until it reaches the full recommended amount.

• Revenue from the fee will support land conservation efforts and open space infrastructure as defined by state law.

Updates to Other Impact Fee Categories

The ordinance also updates several existing impact fee categories to reflect current data and rename certain categories for clarity:

• The road impact fee is now the multimodal transportation impact fee.

• The law enforcement impact fee is now the law enforcement and correctional facilities impact fee.

A revised impact fee schedule has been adopted. Increases to non-school impact fees will be phased in gradually to support predictability for both residential and nonresidential development. The amendment also removes indexing of impact fees and ends the previous subsidizing of nonresidential impact fees.

Affordable Housing Fee Waiver

To support local housing needs, the ordinance provides waivers of non-school impact fees for qualifying affordable housing.

• A 100% waiver is available for housing provided to households earning up to 50% of the area median income.

• A 50% waiver is available for households earning between 50% and 80% of the area median income.

• A 30-year deed restriction is required to maintain long-term affordability.

Implementation

The ordinance will take effect upon filing with the Florida Secretary of State. New or increased impact fees, including the conservation and open space impact fee, will take effect 90 days after the effective date.

These updates reflect St. Johns County’s ongoing commitment to enhance conservation and community well-being, two pillars of its strategic plan.